The Funky Panther
The Funky Panther podcast: Chad, Javier, and Tim deliver high-energy, hilarious banter with random commentary, raunchy humor, and featured guests. Join the fun for an hour-long show that takes you on a refreshing, informative journey through the colorful world of music, news, arts, and entertainment.
The Funky Panther
SWAT Raids and Smash Burgers at Gustos
Jonny of Gusto's Burgers has an incredible story that will leave you inspired and hungry for more. From a social media marketer to a culinary maestro, Jonny's journey is filled with passion, perseverance, and the unbeatable taste of classic, nostalgic burgers. Broadcasting from the bustling Magnolia neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas, he recounts how a rundown burger bodega ignited a dream at age 25 and how a pandemic pivot turned that dream into reality. Join us as Jonny shares the art of crafting the perfect smash burger and the importance of cooking with love and intention.
Discover the rollercoaster ride from burgers to business success, including a dramatic SWAT team raid. But it’s not just about the burgers—Jonny's story is also about resilience, family support, and timely opportunities. His wife’s thoughtful gift and a chance meeting with Jonathan Allen paved the way for the revival of Gusto's Burgers, transforming setbacks into a thriving venture. This episode captures the essence of community, the power of connections, and the beauty of seizing opportunities against all odds.
Amidst the culinary tales, we sprinkle in light-hearted banter about weather woes, favorite movies, and even pilot dreams. Ever wondered how a Fort Worth cop transitions to a commercial pilot? Or how the weather can derail the best-laid plans? We’ve got stories that will make you laugh and nod in agreement. We also chat about the simple joys of gourmet food and the allure of family recipes, all wrapped up in the warm, inviting atmosphere of Fort Worth’s food scene. This episode is a delicious blend of inspiration, humor, and mouthwatering delights. Join us!
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We'll see you next time gonna make you feel alive. So get ready for a journey.
Chad:Let the take a dive from the heart of texas.
Johnny:We bring a four-foot groove not a lot of dick talk right at the table in america.
Javier:Well, we don't have any in the future. I don't know, maybe possibly hey, it's in the near future dick talk.
Chad:Now available everywhere we gotta start the show we gotta start the show. Oh, hello everyone, and welcome to the Funky Panther Coming to you from Fort Worth, Texas.
Javier:Actually coming to you from Gusto's Burgers here in Fort Worth, Texas, In the heart of Magnolia, fort Worth, texas, near Southside.
Chad:Near Southside.
Javier:Off 8th Avenue.
Tim:I feel like I need to put the that's Texas music in here. I didn't bring that computer, so we're limited. It's fine, we're limited.
Chad:We are sitting down with the man behind the burger, the man behind Gusto's Johnny himself. You want to say hi, man.
Johnny:Hello everyone. Hello from Gusto's Burger World.
Chad:We're so glad to have you on the show and we're so glad that you let us come into your establishment and have you on the show this is already so amazing.
Johnny:I feel so cool. This is great, this is awesome. Thank you so much for being here.
Chad:Thank you. And so yeah, sit back, relax, enjoy, let's get into it. I'm Chad, I'm Javier and I'm Tim, and we are the Funky.
Johnny:Panther. All right, that's so awesome, that's so great. God damn it. I just want to thank you for putting tasty, tasty burgers in your mouth. Thank you.
Tim:I mean there's a lot worse things that could be going into my mouth, but your burgers are phenomenal.
Johnny:Thank you so much for saying that. Lots of love that goes into them.
Chad:How old were you when you decided? You know what I really want to put meat in people's mouths.
Johnny:Well, you know, I guess an earlier age Burger related, burger related, yeah, all burger related.
Javier:Of course, this is a burger conversation.
Johnny:No, you know, the first time I kind of had the idea it was like I think I was like 25. I lived. I'm 36 now. Ok, but a young man, yeah, young man.
Chad:We're 37 and 38. We're right there, but you are the youngest of the men at the table. Ok, that makes me feel good. Usually the boys are in here.
Johnny:So yeah, I lived over here in this neighborhood right behind us and there was this like run-down burger bodega. That was like always on what was it? Allen and Hemphill and I would always have to drive past it every day and I saw that place and it was just like so like kind of like crazy looking but I just like wanted to rent it out so bad and sell burgers out of it. That's kind of honestly.
Chad:Whenever it kind of started, you're like I could do this shit, I could do that, like that sounds like so much fun.
Johnny:Yeah, that sounds like so much fun, so, but yeah, I was like around 25 thinking about it nice so near South side, ian, yeah, is that what they call over here, near Southside maybe.
Tim:South cider maybe maybe that does sound better. I don't know, maybe South Cider, south Cider, maybe that sounds way better. That does sound better.
Johnny:South Cider.
Javier:I can't do that, can I do?
Johnny:that.
Tim:I don't know.
Johnny:I mean, yeah, it's okay, we're here, we're going to show up.
Tim:This is a safe place. It's all right, don't ask me, I'll do what you want. I'll do it.
Chad:How long ago did you start making this dream a reality then?
Johnny:Okay, yeah, so right, okay. So I told you guys I was like 25 thinking about this spot, this little burger spot. We, what was it? 2020. So that was like four years ago. Well, let me rewind Around 2018, I had this like Remember what you did. Yeah, awesome rewind.
Javier:That was amazing.
Johnny:That was not done by a computer.
Javier:If you did not know, that was done by this guy's mouth, that was incredible.
Johnny:Yeah, so 2018, I started this like little marketing, like social media marketing thing, and it was doing well, but I was like my first like real business and I kind of it never really like took off and especially COVID happened and it never really like took off and especially, uh, COVID happened and it really just like killed it. Yeah, Uh, so I needed to do something and, like burgers have always sold, I've always wanted to like do a burger project. So, uh, so 2020, I just like really jumped into it. I jumped into it. I was like 30, yeah, 32 around there and, uh, I rented out that that little a and a a spot, that little spot that I'd always wanted to like.
Johnny:I went during covet and went knocking on the doors and like the kitchen was like 300, like 400 a month, like so cheap. And so I was just like, okay, like my marketing. I got like maybe like a grand left and I was like, okay, like here, some money, Like please, like give me like two months free rent. And then so yeah, moved in 2020 and started working on the recipe and I was open literally seven days a week like online and in-store, making maybe $100 a day, but like it was so worth it because I was really honing on the recipe and stuff and really like kind of like building regulars and what Gusto was going to be so it and stuff and really like kind of like building regulars and what gusta was was going to be.
Tim:so started off in just like a little, just a little bodega spot, yeah yeah, started out.
Johnny:So um all you fort worth people, the new skate park, uh the south side.
Johnny:So there's this little spot, it's called a and a mart and it's right behind the old 7-eleven right there it's really run down, really sketchy oh, yeah, but that place is so awesome and it really really changed my perspective a lot, like during 2020 is because, uh, you know, like I had an office in 2018, like doing the marketing thing, and like I uh kind of just had this idea about myself, and then 2020 just like totally ripped that idea out and and then now I'm like making burgers in this, uh, you know, run down little gas station trying to like perfect a recipe. It was a very humbling experience and really needed for like the next like four years of this journey, I guess so.
Javier:So, like I, I love to think that everybody has a dream of, like, cooking or, you know, making burgers, food. I know I've had that dream before everyone has a burger, man, everyone has a burger man, dude, I mean obviously, yeah, it's either like a taco truck or like a burger truck and I watch a lot of food videos online Like guys in, not you Tim.
Tim:No, I never had a burger idea.
Javier:No, never Like have you seen the videos of guys in England making potatoes with like beans and cheese? Oh yeah, I never thought about people doing eating that kind of stuff.
Johnny:Yeah, like once you really fall in, like go into it, it's just like man, you can really get lost in the sauce.
Javier:Yeah, you know, with any kind of food you're doing, so, like you have the idea, you want to make the burgers, you're starting to make the burgers. What else inspired you like growing up? Were you a Bourdain man?
Johnny:Yeah, so, honestly, not really, Not really. Okay. I grew up working in restaurants and stuff. My parents had a food company. They had a tortilla company when I was a little kid, so I was always around this service industry life, always around, always around, but always wanting to get out and always being like okay, I'm going to go to school, I'm going to do this. I've always had a strong passion for marketing and branding since I was a kid and that's where I really wanted to go. But, like I said, like the whole COVID situation really like put me on a different trajectory.
Johnny:And so the thing about like going back and talking about food in my life I had never really sought it out, but it was always in my household, like my dad, my mom. My mom would just like throw down. You know, my aunts would just like cook the best meals. And it really made me, or helped me, understand, like, whenever you're cooking, like you're doing it with intention and you're doing it with love because you're about to feed all these awesome people, and that was so ingrained that, like I was like, oh, okay, this is natural. Like, literally, people love this. Okay, this is natural, like, literally, people love this. Like, if I just like, can just, yeah, just make a burger with a little bit of love.
Chad:There's a lot of love and entertaining in food right, it's not just how good it tastes it's the camaraderie that it brings, and all that kind of shit.
Johnny:100%, yeah, dude.
Chad:And it's funny, so going back too, because I think that I could be wrong but our first interaction with gustos was at right.
Javier:Yeah, we went to dryce. For that reason it was happy hour, but also we wanted to try the burke.
Chad:Yeah, we were meeting up with some friends and everyone's like where we want to go. We're like we want to go to gustos so dry that's so good, and it was incredible.
Chad:Like we, we didn't really know what to expect. We saw lots of stuff like I think that, to your point, with marketing and social media stuff, stuff like that, that is a huge part of any business, right yeah? But despite you know, you could have a shit product and really good social media, even though they looked great. We didn't know what to expect. And, man, it was incredible. We were just blown away, like he and I were just we didn't even talk to anybody else, we just sat there.
Javier:We were like holy shit Eating and looking up like holy fuck, it's fucking good, it's ridiculous.
Tim:But the thing about the burgers is that it's also simple enough right, so you're not getting lost in all this crazy stuff. People are trying to make this the biggest burger and doing all this crazy stuff. It's a smash burger at heart, right yeah. It's a smash burger at heart, right yeah.
Johnny:It's a smash burger. It's not a carnival burger. There's not like whatever on it. I don't even know.
Javier:Bacon, bacon. Yeah, it's not crazy.
Johnny:It's just like what we practice is like, if we can make a burger bun perfect every single time, just make like. If we can make a burger bun like perfect every single time and that I don't know like, that all like will teach us. Um, that will hopefully teach us to like transfer, that like focus and intention on our work and things outside of you know, burger life. So that's like, really what we focus on is just doing like a few things. Really really right, you right, it's not a carnival have you watched Parks and Rec?
Johnny:A few episodes.
Javier:There's an episode where Ron Swanson makes a burger and they have a burger contest and one of the guys makes a burger with ancho chili or whatever, like aioli and all this fine little lettuce sprouts, and Ron's like here's a burger, it's meat Between two pieces of bread, between two pieces of bread, here's there's ketchup and mustard, if you want to put it on there that's great people are like better than the other dude.
Johnny:Yeah, crazy burger.
Javier:Yeah, yeah, if you do the simple stuff right yeah, and like it's not hard to make a great product, and like when I taste your burger, it's not easy.
Chad:It's different.
Javier:I hear what you're saying, I'm at the outside looking in and I'm like you know, I think like in the 50s how they made burgers.
Johnny:They should have just kept it that way.
Javier:I mean, like I have yours and I'm like I kind of feel like it's like from yesteryear and like you get that nice char and it's delicious, and then the tots fucking set it off Like it's ridiculous.
Tim:It reminds me of now I don't know if you're going to take offense to this or not and I'm going to try not to offend you.
Javier:Don't say anything about Hitler burgers, for the love of God.
Tim:No, no, no, no, no, no. I look back kind of like you're talking about the burgers of yesteryear, right, yeah, you walk into a bowling alley and bowling alley burgers or whatever always hit. It seems like it's just kind of like that greasy it's got the charred edges and all that stuff.
Chad:It's just one of those things right yeah.
Tim:And the only place you can get them is at a bowling alley, and I don't want to go to a bowling alley to eat all the time. You can get them is at a bowling alley, and I don't want to go to a bowling alley to eat all the time, because then I'm stuck bowling, which I don't want to do all the time, and then that's how I hurt my shoulder and so it's this long.
Javier:Yeah, you know I don't want to do that, but he's the oldest of us, yeah yeah I turned.
Johnny:I turned 39 this year um you look good.
Tim:Thank you, I appreciate it. I feel I feel like aging right now, um, but I say all that. Like I said, it reminds me of that simple burger. It's going to taste the same every single time. I know what I'm expecting. Right, I'm going to look at it, I see it. I see how it looks. I know my brain already says like this is how it's going to taste. I bite into it.
Johnny:It tastes like that every single time. It's amazing because we all like growing up in America or like being here in America.
Johnny:we all kind of had that experience before, like having like that incredible greasy, like just simple burger at a gas station or bowling alley or whatever, and that is like so, like that is what we want to serve. We want to like connect you back with those memories, like nostalgia. We're like that's why we're serving on paper plates Maybe we'll do something later but we really want to like help you get back to those feelings. You know, Like that is like that's like so fun.
Tim:Whenever?
Chad:people say that because it's like yes, like there is more attention behind it and there's something about like and we keep talking about simplicity, and it's not a simple burger, I can tell you, and it's got so much more flavor than your normal burger, the sauce on top and.
Tim:I want to get into all of that. But there are like simplicities to it, right that make it feel like what we're talking about For sure.
Chad:And I think that that says a lot about a business to where it's not like you. I feel like there's two different kinds of businesses right. There's Martin House Brewing that has something new every single week and it fucking kills for them For sure.
Chad:And you've got those places that have been around for 40, 50 years, that are just a staple, because it is your good same. Maybe not simple, but could be simple, but it is consistent and it's just like it brings you back. I feel like this place, first off, is fantastic, but it seems like it's going to be something that brings us back in 5 to 10 years. And it already brings us back to bowling alleys. Or there's this place in Jacksonville called Herd Burgers. It's the most basic-ass burger of all time.
Chad:You've got to pay cash and everything.
Tim:It's like this, but less is good. That's what this kind of reminds me of with the Herd's Burger, the cheeseburger.
Chad:It's the Ron Swanson thing. It is what it is.
Johnny:Here, take it, have a good time, except for the burger sauce. The burger sauce is where we get a little special here. Yeah, that's where it gets a little more complex, but even that's so simple. It's just like a few fresh ingredients. But yeah, the burger sauce was fun developing.
Chad:So tell us. So we keep talking about how simple. Tell us why it's not that simple, like tell us what sets you apart.
Johnny:I could say okay so the number one thing is the actual smashing of the burger, right?
Johnny:So there's like a scientific I'm probably going to like butcher it, but it's something called like the Meijer effect, that this like old scientist invented it that like, whenever that heat gets completely transferred to that meat, like there's no dirt there's not dirty, like the grills, like clean, it goes straight to the meat, then it creates that like that Lacey effect and like that crisp to it. So I I tried to like I rented out the old day and a and I tried to make a smash burger for like the first like three months, and it just never like I tried to make a smash burger for like the first like three months and it just never like I just couldn't get a hot enough. I couldn't just figure it out. But so so I think some some other places around town or around the country, around the area are serving smash burgers, but they're not 100 percent a smash burger because it doesn't have like that mired effect. So I think, I think I would maybe start there when did you perfect that Like on the food?
Johnny:truck. Yeah. So I thought I perfected it A&A, and then I thought I perfected it out of the burger van, and then I thought I perfected it out of the food truck, and then we kind of think we maybe have perfected it here possibly. So it's like a work in progress.
Chad:It's amazing, it really is, and you know, you know we went. Of course we've mentioned dryce. I mean you, you've done a great job, not only with the food, but like the marketing and the relationships and the collaborations that you've had, because you're able to like park out behind dryce, which is still kind of new and upcoming in itself.
Johnny:Right, it was still pretty fresh.
Chad:Yeah, it was super fresh and then you partnered with uh, our buddy jason, over at tulips with tulips, yeah, which was great. And then you were there for a short amount of time before you're like let's take this shit over.
Johnny:Yeah, golly, that was so nuts, that was so. I can't believe it, man. I honestly can't believe it. How did that happen?
Chad:Because I know that the Rattler was so. For those of you at Fort Worth, there is this beautiful building that I have always. Honestly, I always come up with business concepts in my mind and never do them, and they always end up in this building, this building is amazing.
Tim:It's so cool. This building holds a special place for me because this is actually the place where I took Jesse out on our first date nine years ago.
Johnny:Really, that's so awesome, Whenever it was a bearded lady. I've heard that from a few other couples and it's so awesome. It's such a good place. They're like we were.
Tim:We were sitting right here whenever we were right over there and we actually sat here for five hours. It was ridiculous. Wow, we were drinking and just talking and having a good time.
Javier:That's a lot right there, that's a lot.
Chad:So first question how did you kind of progress throughout these collaborations? And two, how did you come to hop on this building.
Johnny:Okay, let me tackle the first one, so the first one, just from the beginning.
Chad:Yeah, um, let me, okay, tackle the first one, so the first one, just like from the beginning, like yeah, like going from, like dryce, how?
Javier:did you get you?
Johnny:know, jonathan, you're like hey, oh yeah, I'm also jonathan, let's jump in together. And that was okay, that was man, that was crazy, right, okay. So so with john, that whole situation, I honestly I like kind of quit the burger business for like a second. Uh, so we were at the a&A Mart for about maybe six months, eight months, and they were doing some illegal gambling and stuff in there, and so the forward SWAT team broke it up. So I was building regulars it was awesome, I was perfecting the sauce, I was kind of getting there, yeah. And one day I had this new person or this regular that came in and brought her a friend and she was just loving the burgers, telling her friend about it, and I was getting so excited about to make a burger. And then eight forward SWAT members or SWAT team come in and with a warrant and like shotguns and like tall, like huge dudes, and they're like everyone, like you know, stop what you're doing and like all this stuff?
Chad:yeah, nobody move.
Johnny:So I basically kind of just shut that down immediately. Did you think it was the burgers? Yeah, yeah, I was like they're so good, damn it again. Shut this down, they thought we had crack in it.
Tim:Yeah, they thought we had crack in it. Yeah, they thought we had crack in it. We really don't, though.
Johnny:That was such an awesome, crazy, awesome experience it was. So I was sad, but I was also loving it too, because it was such a crazy experience and the captain or whatever the leader of the SWAT team was saying that he was going to arrest me that day. But the leader of the SWAT team was like saying that he was going to arrest me that day. But I had a uh, we me and the, the property owner we wrote a lease on a piece of paper and I always carried it with me just in case anything happened and I pulled it out.
Chad:I pulled it out.
Johnny:I was like look, I was like I am like a different legal entity. And then he was like, okay, listen, uh, we've been watching this place and we've been seeing you here and if you're're going to stay here, then the next time we come you're going to be arrested. So it's up to you. You can stay here if you want, but next time you're going to be involved with this. So I was like, okay, all right, sounds good. So I got all my stuff out and then I thought the project was over. I was like, fuck, what am I going to do now? Like God damn it. You know, I can't go rent like a. I can't. You know, it's so hard in the food business to get started out of nothing. And then I it was like three or six months later, I don't even know like it was already dead in my brain. I was already trying to think of different business ideas. And then my wife was in LA and she came back with this awesome t-shirt that was Stitch Gustos and it was like, hey, you talk about Gustos like every day you need to do your burger project. And so I was like, oh, my god, I love you so much. Like she really helped me see that. And then the very fucking.
Johnny:Next day, jonathan reached out. Jonathan Allen, we're like hey, like we heard you got in the food game a while back. Like do you, do you have anything that you would want to do here? Yeah, and it was just like I was like yes, actually I do, I have this brand, I want to come talk to you about it. And then we set up a meeting the next day or next week or whatever. And then that was it. He was like okay, that sounds awesome, let's do it. Like I I met jonathan from a long time ago from, uh, working with sarah castillo at taco heads, so I kind of like built a small relationship with him, a little bit of trust, and uh, so he was like yeah, come, come to your project, so freaking awesome again with like like pretty much like no rent, like like charging me very little, just helped me kind of get this idea in a truck right so yeah, so, so yeah, I had to get a truck, so that kind of worked out because the the burger stuff had kind of stopped.
Johnny:So so what's another thing that sells is tacos. So I had like a little taco truck that I was doing for like weddings during COVID, because weddings were still a thing.
Johnny:Yeah, it's honestly crazy, like the last, like four years have just been like bouncing around trying to like make it, but I did have that food truck for freaking taco weddings during COVID and so I just started using that plus my van that I had for my food business. So yeah, dude, yeah. And then that's how we got connected with Dreyas. I'm not sure if I kind of winded there.
Chad:No, yeah, I love the story.
Johnny:No it was perfect, it was destiny. It was destiny. It really felt like it dude.
Javier:Everybody has a gift, and in that gift lies their destiny.
Tim:Dude. Thank you, bro, the whole time you're telling me this story, though.
Johnny:Thank you, dude, Thank you bro.
Tim:The entire time you're telling the story, I'm sitting here thinking like, okay, when they got raided you should have been like up, just let me make you a burger.
Chad:I don't want your crack burger, sir. Yeah, get out of here. Drop the spatula. It's like tense.
Johnny:Drop your weapon Drop your spatula.
Tim:I remember when that was happening, though, because they hit several places right around here. They hit all of Hemphill, yeah, they hit all of Hemphill.
Johnny:It's crazy that I was involved with that because I know that culture now crazy that, like I was like involved with that because, like I like, I know, like that culture, like now it's like, oh yeah, we all got hit that day, we all got shut down that day. You know like everyone talks to each other, everyone comes, yeah, and so like, oh, you know what else is really cool. Side note is that at a and a is like I learned, uh, like convenience store etiquette, like you know, like quick trip is something else, but like little bodega etiquette is something completely else and I I kind of learned it there. So what do you mean? It's just a whole nother world. Like a whole nother world and like little shops like that, it's a whole nother world.
Tim:Did you ever go to?
Johnny:QuickSack.
Chad:Yeah, I lived around those Right.
Tim:It's the same, but QuickSack is an adult. Have you been there since?
Javier:No, oh man the day. Yeah, dude, it's like crazy shit. Did you ever buy a roll of lotto tickets and scratch them off?
Johnny:dude, you know I was out there with everybody just be like all right, get lucky, I get a door dash order. And then I'm like sweet, I got five bucks. Yeah, crazy.
Javier:So you know, aside from burgers, like you know, we like knowing or hearing about other other business owners' hobbies. What are your hobbies besides running this successful business?
Johnny:Yeah, so I guess I don't know if this is a hobby. It's kind of like a zone out veg type situation. But I watch movies, I watch TV Okay.
Tim:That puts me in a perfect segue.
Chad:We're going to stop you right there.
Tim:I'm going to paint a picture because we're close to the same age. Okay, All right so paint a picture because we're close to the same age. Okay, all right. So remember a time whenever you had TV Guide, that was either in the paper or on the thing. You probably didn't look through it and you were flipping through the channels and there's only a limited amount of channels, right? So you get to like channel 39, or you know what is it?
Johnny:channel 27,. Whatever. Mtv back in the day. 39 Is it Channel 27?
Tim:Whatever 39 was MTV. Yeah, you get to your spot and you find that one movie, and it doesn't matter where it's at in the movie. You know you're going to stop and you're going to watch that movie for the rest of the time. That's what you're doing at that point. What movie is that?
Johnny:Ooh, first Instinct is Goodfellas.
Tim:Ooh, that's a first thing. That's a first for us. I don't think we've had anybody say Goodfellas Really, but it makes sense. Yeah, it's a great one.
Johnny:I love that movie. I literally love that show.
Tim:The opening scene is what got me, that was what hooked me, because I was just like how intense it was with Joe Pesci opening the back and just stabbing the camera, he's still alive.
Johnny:What Yikes?
Tim:Not expecting that at all and all of a sudden and that's how they kick it off such a good movie, good choice, all right, now carry on movies tv shows, uh, yeah, so, yeah, that's really, I mean fucking so supreme, it's so.
Johnny:It's like so silly, so stupid. I feel like it's like cliche. But I we watched the spring was like every day like all really yeah, and it really does, okay, okay. So I just finished it again and I went back into like season one episode one. And season one episode one, literally it tells, it tells everyone's flaws, like all the character flaws, and it literally tells where the story's gonna go and it is literally it just surprises me all the time. So so that is like my, my drama, like veg out and then like my other side is the rest of development, like I just like the rest of development that's just always on in the background and like that.
Tim:There's always money in the banana stand.
Javier:There's always money in the burger stand. Yeah, there's always money in the burger stand.
Johnny:And I probably those two things is what I watch most in my life. Yeah.
Chad:What movies have you gotten into recently?
Johnny:Um, I watched, I watched. Uh, speaking of like, I watched, speaking of old Italian mobster movies or whatever. I watched this one yesterday with Steve Buscemi wrote and directed it, it was made in 96 or whatever, but it literally has all the old soprano actors. I had no idea that it was going to be like this, but it had all the old actors because they're all from Brooklyn, so they're all doing their thing making movies together. So I watched. I forgot what it was called, but it's like this drunk asshole Trees, trees, is it Trees?
Chad:No, oh yeah, it's Trees Lounge, trees Lounge.
Johnny:Yeah, trees Lounge, such a weird movie. Such a weird movie? Yeah, yeah, but I've never heard about it. It's like an indie. It's like an indie like I don't know.
Tim:It's like an indie like not mobster, but he's like just a town drunk kind of hangs out this. I've never seen it.
Johnny:It's all right, it's cool, it's okay. It's not the best movie. It's not the best movie in the world, it's really not Y'all sold it done.
Tim:Yeah, it's really not just watch it honestly there is.
Johnny:There's some, some stuff in there that's like how have I not seen this?
Johnny:because it's like so iconic, like steve buscemi, just like I don't know it's cool, isn't it weird, though, that all those movies have the same actors dude, it's, it's, yeah like I mean you watch bronx tale, or if you watch uh goodfellas casino or like anything by scorsese, yeah, dude all those dudes and all those dudes go back to like Joe Pesci Like he was, like he was in like the singing group, like trying to get famous, yeah With like two other actors that are like her mob actors, so like that didn't work out for him. So they just went into this like genre that was blowing up and they made a life for themselves in movies Like they were in the right place right time they were in the same neighborhood.
Johnny:It's like Danny DeVito was a hairdresser. It's crazy. Yeah, all those dudes were all like yeah.
Chad:Sometimes it's like why fuck up a good thing? If you've got a good group, you might as well put them in the other ideas and concepts.
Johnny:It works, it really does work.
Chad:You want to make money again.
Tim:You want to make money again. You want to see something wild though is watching joe pesci and seeing like his early work where he's doing all the mob stuff and all that stuff. And then go watch my cousin vinny oh, he carries that mob character. But then it shows like he's actually really funny too so totally, yeah, love that guy, love that fucking guy love that fucking guy.
Chad:So I have a random question. Yeah, just, I don't know. I know it's completely off the cuff, but Seven inches no, I'm just kidding.
Javier:Seven inches. Wrong question, wrong question, wrong episode, wrong show, wrong show All right.
Chad:So this weekend we had some really bad weather. Okay, and did the weather fuck up the weekend for anyone?
Tim:else 100%. Yes 100%, Javier. Why'd it fuck up for?
Javier:you.
Johnny:No, it felt good.
Javier:Oh, you know, I was shopping at a Walmart, you know, just making a day of it. All of a sudden it just came down and we're like what the fuck's going on? Everybody looked up at the roof and then we left and it started hailing a little bit and we're like son of a bitch.
Tim:You look at it as money, though, because I'm going to make some money off of this.
Javier:So I work on all that shit.
Johnny:There you go. You're like cha-ching.
Javier:That's right.
Johnny:Cha-ching, I think I can one-up you.
Tim:Okay, so over the weekend we had so what Music Festival? Okay, which?
Johnny:I don't basically what Warped Tour used to be. Okay, yes, my wife is an emo.
Tim:Okay, cool.
Chad:Oh, really, I was a emo Is an emo Is a emo.
Tim:She's an elder emo Awesome.
Johnny:She used to go to that yeah.
Tim:So what? Literally had all the music that I grew up listening to from like 2009 to 2012. So we're out there. Saturday was great. Saturday was wonderful. Got to see a lot of bands. It was hot, but it was fantastic. It was Sunday Number one I paid $25 to park at Panther Island. We got there at about 3. The first band we wanted to see started at 4. Saw the first band. Saw another band. We're waiting for this bigger band that we want to see started at 4. Saw the first band. Saw another band. We're waiting for this bigger band that we want to see. And that fucking weather cell blows in. They shut down the entire concert. What? They shut it down.
Chad:I get it, not just concert Festival. The festival.
Tim:Yeah, they shut it down for safety. Safety, I get it. I understand that. However, they didn't.
Chad:Fuck safety, yeah, fuck safety.
Tim:Number one that cold air blew through and it felt so good. It felt so good. We were all feeling it. It was great out there. Number two they didn't say if they were going to open it back up. The ticket said rain or shine, so I'm like we'll let it rain, we'll continue. It was an hour and 30 minutes later that they allowed people to come back in and there was only like two bands playing like finishing up the night. Wow, I went home because I didn't know they didn't communicate anything.
Tim:They were like we will let you know, on social media, nothing. Radio silence.
Chad:Probably a cluster trying to get out of there too.
Tim:They finally let everybody know that they were opening back up. I was already at home. One of the bands that we wanted to see actually did a pop-up show over at Tulips.
Chad:Oh shit.
Tim:Who was it? It was Seosin and I wanted to go see them, but we didn't know until after. But then they charged. It was $30. And I'm like I've already paid. I paid like $165, $170 for the tickets for two days. On top of that I paid $25 for a parking lot that I only stayed there for literally two and a half hours. I just want some money back. Give me $25 back. You should have bought the insurance.
Johnny:You should have bought that festival Emo Festival Insurance. I should have bought the.
Tim:Emo Festival Insurance. So that's how it fucked me up, did they really? These days, they have everything these days.
Chad:Everything's got insurance. They're trying to get your money Left and they're trying to get your money left and right.
Tim:I don't know about emo insurance, but it would work, but they do have concert All right, chad, you brought up the weather, so obviously something to give Johnny a chance.
Chad:OK, did the weather fuck you up at all this weekend?
Johnny:I really, I mean it probably slowed sales down, yeah, but no, it really didn't fuck me up too much.
Chad:I slow sales. He's a little fucked up.
Johnny:Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, man, this past dude last, that's three days, so the last four days, there's so much and yeah. So I honestly I really don't even know kind of what you're talking about. I swear to God, like I really haven't really been like, like I don't even know like was it? Was it really that bad?
Javier:like I Really was bad for, like, maybe she's it ever two or three hours.
Johnny:Yeah, yeah, I was probably. I don't know what I was doing, all right.
Javier:I was probably fucking drunk, I was just like ah let's sell more burgers.
Chad:So the weather fucked me up twice this weekend. So I went out to the Keys with some buddies and we were going to go fishing and stuff. We left Thursday night. Our flight was delayed four hours.
Tim:Again. This happened in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago Did you fly American, I flew Spirit. That's good. That's what you want. That's what you want to be slowed down on?
Chad:I flew the best.
Johnny:Were you stuck on the plane for four hours.
Chad:No, we were just waiting in the airport. At least I got to go over to Ampersand and try the coffee there at the airport.
Tim:So it was nice I had some time.
Chad:That was not that big of a deal, right, it was really on the way home. I really got fucked.
Tim:It's a little inconvenience on the way there, a little inconvenience On the way home.
Chad:I got to Fort Lauderdale around midnight 1230, something like that.
Tim:A little inconvenient.
Chad:On the way back, we were heading back and about 20 minutes before we're supposed to land, right, they tell us, hey, we're actually going to Houston. And I'm like, hey, that's not where I'm fucking going. What are you talking about?
Tim:We're going to Houston. Did you get on the wrong plane? No, absolutely not. It's not a home alone situation. No, when we get to.
Chad:Houston and they're like, yeah, we're going to wait here a while. We were in Houston for four hours before we took off to go to DFW. The whole reason we went to Houston is because they said we had to refuel so they can come around the back end of DFW Airport. Yikes, this is one thing. Also the guy to my left, apparently. When's the last time y'all flew Spirit it?
Tim:was a while ago. It's been a minute.
Chad:It's been years for me.
Johnny:I took advantage a while ago. You can do this thing where you bid on seats that are on it like that haven't been taken, so I put I was like you know what?
Chad:I'll put 50 bucks on that front seat. Let's see what happens.
Javier:I got it, I got it this big, you know like first class.
Chad:Spirit, first class, first class seat and spirit right. And the guy on my left has a mask on, shaking uncontrollably, looks like he's about to die. The girl on my right is so jacked up on wine that she's having an argument with the guy on the plane the entire flight to one point, like he's just throwing waters at her, like literally like sober up, bitch, like what are you doing? And then she's just yelling and taking video and saying fuck spirit, this is what spirit does. And then at one point he got so sick.
Tim:You were on one of those. Yes, I was on one of those planes.
Chad:Yes, I was on one of those planes and she was just like this young mid-20s, just like she wasn't even a white girl, but she was acting like the most whitest of white girls right on this plane.
Tim:I've prayed to the heavens to be on a flight like this.
Chad:So the guy ends up finally giving her a card. It's like a red card.
Johnny:It's like he gives her a red card for playing soccer.
Chad:And he's like look, I need you to read this and if you don't comply, there will be an officer with you when you land. And I was like shit. Still didn't stop her, but she slowed down quite a bit.
Johnny:It was rough. I've never been on a flight like that. So like those experiences in life can like really deter your whole day, or maybe even week, you know yeah but like sometimes it's like man, this is so crazy. I would never be able to see this, so it's kind of like it's like sucks, but also equally, this is so awesome that's the primary reason why I go to waffle house.
Chad:Yeah, exactly yeah, like that kind of stuff yeah and then we got diverted and it was like less fun because I've been dealing with these two for the past two and a half hours. And then we got diverted and now I'm really stuck with two for another. It was a three-hour flight that ended up being eight and a half hours.
Johnny:Yikes, it was rough, it was rough.
Tim:So the weather fucked you, you take the cake, buddy. The weather fucked me, you take the cake on that one.
Johnny:This episode brought to you by Spirit. That's like their whole shtick.
Javier:I love that we did that.
Johnny:It's going to Fuck so bad. Spirit get fucked, spirit get fucked. I have a friend of mine $99.
Tim:I have a friend of mine who's a pilot for Spirit. Really Randomly, he was a Fort Worth police officer. He gave all that up because he had a dream of being a commercial pilot.
Chad:He had a dream of working for. Spirit, he flies for.
Tim:Spirit. But let me tell you those pilots are so fucking well paid, it's ridiculous.
Johnny:Oh, that's great Good. I've always heard the opposite. Oh yeah, no, he's paid, he is paid.
Tim:He lives full time in Tulum. That's awesome. So he's in Tulum. He splits his time between Tulum and, I think, bogota or Medellin.
Johnny:One of the two, that's probably us.
Javier:He's probably a drug dealer.
Johnny:He's really a drug dealer.
Chad:What kind of pilot Did your friends? A drug dealer Does it got that.
Johnny:He knows how to get away with it.
Chad:Do this guy. You got you just a drug. You literally just.
Tim:It is weird, though, like the planes that he's shown me that he flies are not your normal commercial spirit.
Johnny:See your friends they say you're in trouble, drugs added.
Tim:Your friend, you know those you know those planes that you Island hopper in Hawaii.
Johnny:That's more of what he's been flying drugs, dude. Yeah, that's drugs. That's all right baby.
Javier:Well, speaking of drugs. So, aside from you know your glorious restaurant. Where do you know? Where else do you like to eat?
Johnny:like to eat On the drugs.
Chad:That's a nice segue.
Javier:Speaking of drugs, speaking of drugs, I'm sure, when people get high, they love coming over here oh yeah, Food's a drug man, yeah so this place sometimes does turn into that what you just said.
Johnny:People are like oh yeah, a little munchie spot, which is always entertaining, Hell yeah. Hell of a munchie spot, but another okay my favorite man, they just like kill it. I'm so like they're. What an awesome company yeah what an awesome company, awesome people, awesome food and what else papa john's fresh, fresh ingredients I'm trying to think about so and they're also just good people.
Javier:Yeah, great people, yeah exactly.
Johnny:You know, on the street I really respect uh walloons um chef paisley yes I really just like that. That's like I think I feel like they're killing it At like the that level. But other than that, man I don't know, they need a lot of like Cheeseburgers and chicken nubs, I mean you might as well. You know, yeah, might as well, might as well.
Tim:You talked about your family always throwing down Like ants Making some of the best food.
Johnny:Oh yeah, down like ants making some of the best food, oh yeah, if you were going to add something outside of burgers and you were going to take back from like something that your mom or aunt or whatever.
Tim:What is that going to be?
Johnny:So if I were to completely just like be like okay, like not thinking about the Gusto's menu, I'm just thinking about Sunday brunch, I'm going to have, like my Aunt Bea's, like red stacked enchiladas with like some like red stacked enchiladas with like some fucking eggs like a perfect over easy egg, over medium eggs on top and then with on the side like some carne asada and some like salsa and some fresh flour tortillas.
Johnny:That is like such, like the most like awesome menu, like awesome meal in the world and and then what are you drinking with that, though? Just if I can drink water just drink a little bit of water and then, whenever you're just like so full or whatever, you just like you know, hang out and then you then have a nice beer or whatever you want. But man, that, that meal, just that. All you need is water.
Chad:So do you think that that would be part of the more here? Do you think you would have to start like a whole other concept?
Johnny:Yeah, so so the the more thing. So I think with that type of thing I would have to create a whole other concept, because we just wouldn't be able to keep up the same quality Like. We really wouldn't Like on the weekends it would probably I mean, maybe possibly we could do something, but I really think that's a different concept. But I'm happy that you asked about the more stuff. My intention behind that has always been something Like I've always like, wanted more to be our online presence and be able to sell like Gusto's merch and like Gusto's catering, like, and then also maybe make it like a place where other people can sell their stuff, because a lot of people have come and just kind of like given me art and stuff and hopefully it'll sell. So I feel like we have a lot of eyeballs that maybe would want to look at our like online presence. So I think that is more.
Johnny:I think that's like plus more, and then there's all sorts of fun stuff in there.
Javier:That's kind of the idea I got you. That's the idea. It's a perfect segue because, like we were talking earlier, and we know the same people Like you know, we know the same people, like you know, we know a lot of the same people here in fort worth so we're talking about art. You know we're friends with guillermo. Yeah, yeah, uh, we went to high school with him.
Johnny:Oh, no way, that's awesome. I'm gonna tell you, guillermo, I love you, man, we used to get him to do graffiti like he'd graffiti your name and stuff and draw it out that's so awesome, dude. He was always in high school. Oh yeah, that's so awesome. You guys all went to high school with him. Dude, that's so badass.
Tim:I had so many classes with him and he'd be sitting there and he was always drawing something like always drawing something. And it didn't surprise me seeing him branch out and start doing his art full time, for sure.
Johnny:Yeah, man, if you guys in Fort Worth know about him or if you don't know about him, he's like just been, he's been on it, like he's been grinding, like he is not, he's not taking no for an answer, like he is committed to his art and like in in making it that way and I really respect the guy, really respect anybody that does that. You know it's really hard to do that, oh yeah.
Javier:So big, big ups to the g-man, but it took a lot for him to like get where he is, because I remember, like after high school, like he didn't want to do any of it, he was like working at tcc, you know yeah that we can get like uh credits or like uh work towards school, and then he's like dude. I mean I, I don't got any drive for it, and to see where he is now, like I fucking love it yeah, it's great, it really is like he for the best thing he ever did for me, because I've known him since middle school.
Johnny:Yeah yeah.
Chad:You know, and he.
Javier:I was big into Scarface at the time, like my Jansport backpack. I think I gave him like 50 bucks to draw a portrait, like everything of Scarface on there, and I wish I still had that.
Johnny:No way dude there, and I wish I still had that no way dude coolest.
Tim:That's awesome, dude you commissioned that's so awesome. That's that old school like, but like that's so bad. Kind of like that old school like mentality of like doing a hustle right, did you have any hustles?
Johnny:oh, dude, I had a lot of hustles, yeah.
Tim:I had a lot of hustles.
Johnny:You seem like the hustling type dude, I had, I had a few hustles, had a few g-rated hustles, if you x, x-rated hustles.
Tim:No, not X-rated.
Johnny:Let's say rated like PG-13. Let's get you, he had OnlyFans he had.
Tim:OnlyFans with burgers, so your G-rated hustles so okay, my G-rated my very first hustle.
Johnny:So my parents had like this tortilla company, right, they had like salsas, all this stuff, you know. So vendors would say like, hey, come sell our Mexican candies, and they would. They would give my parents like these boxes of candies. They never sold them so I would, I would get to raid those boxes and I had dude, that's so weird. I can like clearly remember I remember seeing all these chiclets like just like huge box, this huge box of chiclets, and I remember looking at them and being like these are free.
Chad:Like these are free.
Johnny:So if I sell these, then like I get all that money, 100% profit, and I think I was like in, like I think I was like maybe kindergarten, like I don't know.
Chad:I was like really young Dude, stupid young and then.
Johnny:So my dad would take me on the route, like to go drop off tortillas and chips to Mexican restaurants. He used to deliver to Benito's right here, and so what I would do is I would go in the back door with him at an early age and I would have my box and I would go to the dishwasher. I remember going to the dishwashers, the waiters, and being like hey, five cents, Ten cents, like five cents. I remember like five, ten cents.
Javier:I would sell little chiclets, just the little individual ones.
Johnny:I would sell them for like five cents something super small, and I would like go into every stop with my dad and I would like make like maybe like seven bucks, but it was like yes so cool.
Chad:So you were that kid when you go across the border into like Matamoros or something like that and you got like that kid's like chiclet, chiclet. Yeah, you were that kid, dude.
Johnny:I really was that kid.
Chad:I really was that kid.
Javier:I swear to God, I was the chicklet chicklet and I had no idea about that I had no idea until later.
Johnny:I remember seeing someone make a joke about it. I was like fuck You're like wait a second, that is so accurate.
Javier:God damn it, fucking chicklet boy.
Johnny:So funny dude. But other than that I remember in middle school I would make bracelets, I would make T bracelets, I would make like t-shirts, yeah, yeah bracelets, right, and we'll do those like little plastic.
Chad:Uh, yeah, the little keychain thing. Yeah, do all that little stuff. That's so fun, dude, I did it up to buy myself a tamagotchi.
Johnny:Oh shoot, oh shoot. That's, that's pretty bad that's the shit. No, that's pretty badass if you could save up for a tamagotchi. Back then those were like 35 bucks or something.
Chad:Yeah that was a lot of money like.
Johnny:That was like how are you going to save that amount of money?
Chad:Right, it was pretty impressive.
Javier:So what was the X-rated shit? Okay, yeah.
Chad:I felt so stupid as soon as I said that this is how we're probably going to end it, so keep it, make it good, okay, this is sixth grade.
Johnny:Johnny, johnny Gusto, sixth grade. Okay, I was walking out of my, okay, so I'm walking out of my parents' house and they had, like this Japanese maple tree, and if you guys know what that tree looks like, the leaves kind of look like marijuana leaves. Like the marijuana leaves that haven't been like grown into buds and I owned fucking like what was it? Like Dr Dre, like that new Chronic 2001.
Javier:Chronic 2001.
Johnny:That was on Ray, like that chronic 2001 or whatever that was like on the cover. So I knew what that looked like. And then I I tried to like be a bad boy and stuff, so I took a bunch off my parents tree and I put them in zip lock bags and I sold them to like the bad kids, that's. Or I was kind of a bad kid, you know.
Javier:Whatever you, sold it to the I sold.
Johnny:I sold it to the kid like the you know, yeah, whatever, and I made like, so I mean it so.
Chad:I made a lot of money For like a kid. You seem impressed now.
Johnny:I was like, no, like it's like I can't believe I did that. Like I can't believe I did that. It was so bad.
Chad:What's crazy is that that leaf is so poisonous when smoked, is it really? I'm just fucking with you. Oh my God, you're a bunch of kids. X-rated it's murder.
Javier:I went hard.
Johnny:There's no technical limitations for murder.
Javier:Yeah, oh my God, yeah.
Johnny:So whoever's out there just, hit me up if you want some dry Japanese maple leaves, I'll roll them up.
Tim:Johnny's got the hookup.
Johnny:I got the hookup. I call my parents.
Chad:Well, man, we really appreciate you having us here and coming on and chatting and stuff.
Johnny:Thank you so much. This is seriously so freaking cool. This is awesome.
Javier:Appreciate it, so awesome so earlier you messaged you had another interview at noon. Who was that other interview?
Johnny:No, my calendar got mixed up. It had your guy's name on it and I woke up and I was like fuck, this is about to be at noon and I thought maybe you released it at 8 pm. So I was like scattering.
Chad:I was like telling my wife.
Javier:But I looked at the poster, yeah.
Johnny:I looked at the poster and it said live and I was like, okay, that answers my question.
Javier:So sorry for messaging. No, you're good. I was like this motherfucker, what the fuck is he going to talk to before us.
Johnny:Have you been on a podcast?
Javier:No, this is the first time. This is so awesome. This is so awesome, Dude. I mean, we can get some more beer. We can get some more beer.
Chad:We'll cheers in a second, but seriously so awesome.
Johnny:Thanks for coming on. So much fun. I was a little nervous about it, but you guys are so awesome and this was so easy calm. Thank you so much.
Javier:Well, I'll tell you what we have something new coming on the restaurant Coming on.
Johnny:That's shouldn't have said that yeah, coming on. Use your word, bro, coming on. What are you thinking about?
Chad:You know, See you, man, that's the more.
Javier:We can't wait for you to have you on the studio. Proper episode. Dude, that would be amazing.
Johnny:That would be cool. That would be cool, hell yeah, thank you so much.
Chad:Where can people find you? Your business on social media, website, blog, whatever you need to.
Johnny:So Gustos is on Instagram. Three underscores and then G-U-S-T-O-S Gustos, nice, gustos is short for me, gustos, by the way.
Chad:Which means?
Johnny:Which means my, likes, my likes Me, likey, this is my, my likes.
Chad:Well thanks, johnny, son me's Gustos. This is my likes. Well thanks, johnny, Son mis gustos.
Johnny:Not your gustos, mis gustos, mi gustos, yeah, mi gustos.
Javier:Yeah, I'm Mexican. Okay, we know, we're well aware. Yeah, tell us every single time Fucking.
Chad:Mexican samurai, we get it.
Johnny:All right. Well, thanks for hanging out with us. Thank you so much.
Chad:This is episode 176. Spirit.
Johnny:Airlines you.
